We decided that we could add the reverb to the background vocals later and then mix them in with the rest of the piece.

We did some trimming,

Removing the extra four beats of chords and four beats of silence from the beggining,

Chopping dead space from the end.

Then, finally, we were done.

It had taken us more than two hours to finish.

I thanked him, called it "fast", . . .

For if it took only one night's worth of work and the song was almost finished . . .

Three others at this point in the process would be done,

One other at this point would just need the harmony . . .

I could be so close to finished in just four more days.

Then it would be only the practicing . . .

And then the recording of BGVs and harmony parts . . .

And (ugh) more mixing . . .

Then highpass/lowpass, downsamples, and CD!

He did not call it fast.

Still, I feel as though I have reached the halfway point,

Or as if I'm close enough to the top of the hill to see the downward slope of the other side.

Sometimes, with all there is to do, all the times I have to go through each song to end up with a good recording, all the hours I have to spend listening to myself sing, it seems like I'm climbing a mountain and I'll never reach the top.

It doesn't feel that way now.

I didn't truly realize how much work went into creating an album until I tried to do it.

Fortunately, cutting the number of tracks in half lessens the workload quite a bit.

By this time last summer, I wasn't nearly halfway done with my summer project.

Now I'm just about at the halfway point.

Being here makes it easier to see . . .

To see that, in spite of all the work, it's still fun.

Fun to make the music, even though it get slightly aggravating to play and/or sing the same song five or six or seven times in a row.

Fun to do the artwork, to play around with the front cover and the back cover and the inside and the CD image and the booklet, even though it takes more than a day to get it all done.

Fun to see the waves and the amazing things a wave editor can do to help fix the problems, to hear the final product, beautifully mixed, even though I have to listen to myself sing for hours to get to that point.

All tiring and, at times, difficult,

Yet still fun . . .

And to see the finished product, . . .

To hold it in my hands and realize that I've accomplished something, . . .

It makes it all worth it.

Then to have people say that they like it, that it's good,

Which is incredibly hard for my worst critic - me - to see, . . .

Some days, especially long and boring days like these, that's what keeps me going more than anything else -